The Daughters of Berry, Inc.

The Daughters of Berry, Inc., was founded in 1939 at the encouragement of Martha Berry. The mission of the Daughters of Berry, Inc., is to preserve the traditions and heritage of Berry College; to foster the ideals of our founder; to sponsor preservation and restoration projects in support of historic Berry and to further the interest of Berry College whenever possible.

All Berry alumnae and wives of Berry alumni are invited to join The Daughters of Berry, Inc. Regular meetings of The Daughters of Berry are normally held in the Garden Room of the Martha Berry Museum at 5:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the months of September, October, November, February, March, and April, with a closing picnic supper in May at Catherine Cottage.

To learn more about Daughters of Berry or to join, contact Mary Niedrach, Vice President of Membership, at mniedrach@berry.edu.

History

With that determined fervor which was so characteristic of Martha Berry, she suggested to Mrs. L. Geddins Cannon, Mrs. M. Gordon Keown, and Mrs. Clifton Russell, Sr., that she would like for them to organize a club whose membership would be composed of Berry women graduates and the wives of Berry graduates. For the club’s name, she proposed The Daughters of Berry.

In October 1939, the first meeting of the Daughters of Berry took place in Roosevelt Cabin. Martha Berry’s enthusiasm for her schools motivated the women to choose as their purpose the preservation of the ideals of Berry, of upholding the traditions on which The Berry Schools were founded and selecting as an ultimate goal the building of a museum in which to preserve Berry’s history of cabin to college, to save the memorabilia of the school, and to tell the ongoing story of Berry.

Since the opening of the Martha Berry Museum at Oak Hill in 1972, the Daughters of Berry have contributed to a variety of preservation projects, including the restoration of key pieces of the museum’s art collection, replacing parlor draperies and shades and the reproduction of historic rugs for the Oak Hill home. The Daughters of Berry continues its efforts to save our history and tell the ongoing story of Berry just as envisioned by Miss Berry seventy years ago.

The Daughters of Berry sell small replicas of Berry buildings, cook books containing recipes from Daughters of Berry members, and prints of Berry scenes all to raise money for the group’s projects.

The building replicas and cookbooks can be found at the Oak Hill Museum Shop. Prints and paintings of Berry scenes (as shown below) are created by artist Wanda Riggs Mack and can be found here.

The Daughters' latest cookbook (ninth edition) is the continuation of a tradition of cookbooks through which the Daughters have told the Berry story. This book reaches out to include some Berry sons whose culinary skills have gained recognition. It also retains recipes labeled “Historic Berry” in their origin while bringing new recipes from the increasing numbers of club members. Purchase Dining with the Daughters online through the Oak Hill Gift Shop.